The next step:
Work through these stages at your child’s pace. Some children pick it up easily, others need more time.
Stage One: The first sound a child hears when sounding out a word is the beginning sound. During these lessons so far we have concentrated on the beginning (initial) sounds in words.

Check that your child can give you the sound a word begins with. It can be any word, not necessarily a three letter word.

Stage Two: When your child is confident with hearing and giving the initial sound in a word move on to the next step, which is identifying the final sound in a word.

Say to your child, ‘You are used to telling me the sound a word begins with, NOW I want you to listen for the LAST sound in the word.”

At first use three letter words your child is familiar with. e.g. bat, sun, lid, fox. Ask the child to watch your mouth as you say the word clearly. Emphasise the final sound until your child is confident with identifying it.

Practise with your child until he/she has mastered this skill. Frequent short sessions are better than long sessions.

If there are any letter-sounds your child cannot quickly say from the alphabet flashcards practise them every day.

Stage Three: Now that your child can identify the initial and final sounds in a word she/he can move on to listening for the middle sound in a word. To help this skill develop the five vowels –a,e,i,o,u- will be covered. Work at your child’s pace. Take one, two or more days to cover each section. Each section will include reading sentences and simple comprehension exercises.

I have posted a booklet, ‘Brat the Rat’, which emphasises the medial sound 'a'.
This booklet (written for emerging readers) can be found at the end of all the lessons and certificates for Phonic Pack 1.
Printing off and making this booklet with your child would be most beneficial at the end of the Lessons for medial sound 'a'.
Give your child as much help as needed to enjoy and successfully complete the booklet.

Medial sound ‘a’:
1. Look at these words. Read them.
(Tutor Note: your child may be able to read the words without sounding them out. This is good. If she/he cannot read a word without sounding it out, ask her/him to sound it out and then blend it into a word.)

cat rat mat fat bat hat

2. Circle the ‘a’ sound in each word. Notice it is the middle sound.

3. Sound out each word, listening for the ‘a’ sound.

4. Read this sentence.
Tutor Note: This is the process to follow when your child is reading sentences during the next few sessions.
• Your child reads as much of the sentence as he/she can, sounding out any unknown words which can be sounded out.
• Help your child with the look-say words. (e.g. The, the)
• If your child needed help or had to sound out words, ask him/her to read the sentence again, as fluently as possible, pointing to the words as she/he reads. This makes her/him look at the words, so he/she is reading them rather than saying them off by heart.
• Now that your child can read words it is important to string them together into sentences. This is how we read. Reading sentences and understanding what we read is also helping to develop reading comprehension skills. Drawing a picture about the sentence is a simple comprehension exercise.

Read and draw: The cat and the rat sat on the mat.

You can choose Foundation Print or Victorian Modern Cursive Print for this worksheet.

Tutor Note: follow the process for reading a sentence as explained in 4. page 65. Answering ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the sentence is encouraging the child to think about what he/she is reading and therefore developing important comprehension skills.

The bed is red. ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
----------------------------- ----------------------------- ---------------------

Tutor Note: Show your child the question mark at the end of the question. Explain to your child why it is there. Ask him/her to write a question mark.
----------------------------- ----------------------------- ----------------------------- --
1. Look at these words. Read them.

Note to tutor:
1. Pointing to each word, and with your child following along, read the following story to your child.
2. Ask your child to point to the words and read the story to you. Let your child sound out any words which can be sounded out. Prompt your child with the look-say words.
3. Tell your child you are going to read the story again and you are going to emphasise some words. Ask your child to listen carefully and tell you the sound which is in all of the words you emphasised.
4. (Read the story emphasising the words that end with the ‘old’ blend.) Repeat, until your child can hear and tell you – ‘old’.
5. Read the story again and ask your child to finish what the old man’s wife said to him. Is there any more to the story? Ask your child to finish the story.

The Gold Bell

One cold day an old man went for a walk.

He met a bold elf.

The bold elf had a gold bell in a gold bag.

The bold elf said, “I will sell you this gold bell. When you feel sad, hold it tight and it will make you feel glad.”

When he got home the old man’s old wife said, “Who gave you the gold bell?”

“A bold elf sold it to me and told me to hold it tight when I feel sad and then I will feel glad.”

“Oh,” said the old man’s old wife. “---------------------------- --------.”

1. Write old next to each word.
2. Read each word.
3. Discuss the meaning of each word with your tutor.

old

c .

g .

h .

f .

s .

b .

t .

4. Draw pictures, which tell about the words, in the rectangles next to the words ,
old, cold, gold and hold.
5. Think of a sentence for each of these words:
fold, sold, bold, told.
Say each sentence to your tutor.
6. Glue this page into your scrapbook.

Note to tutor:
1. Pointing to the caption under the ball –
say to your child (using letter names)
“a (ay) and ll (double ell) together say (as in the word all)
‘all’ as in ball.
2. Pointing to the word ball, sound it out, b-all, and then blend it into the word ball.
3. Ask your child to point to the caption under the picture of the ball and read, “all as in ball.”

1. Cut out the rectangles on page 55. You will end up with one big rectangle and ten smaller rectangles.
2. You are going to make a booklet with the rectangles.
3. Put the big rectangle, with ‘all’ written on it, on the bottom.
4. Put the small rectangles on top of the big rectangle, all lined up at the left hand side.
5. Staple them altogether with a staple on the left end.
6. By turning the pages, one at a time, you will be able to read the ‘all’ words.

The booklet will look like this.
7. Discuss the meaning of the words with your tutor.
8. Print the ‘all’ words on the lines on page 55 and then glue them into your scrapbook.
9. Find the flashcard for ‘all' as in ball.

The following activities offer practise at reading and writing three letter words that can be sounded out (three letter blends). They integrate reading, writing, comprehension, punctuation and spelling.

Tutor Notes to accompany ‘Three Letter Word Worksheets’:

The final lessons in Phonic Pack One encouraged the child to listen for the initial, end and middle sounds in three letter words.
It is assumed the child has worked through these three stages and the lessons on the last 7 pages in Phonic Pack One before attempting the following worksheets.

The following worksheets are designed to give further practise at using and consolidating these skills. It is important the child is confident at reading and writing three letter sounding words* before moving on to Phonic Pack 2.

When the child is confident at reading and writing three letter sounding words he/she will easily move on to Phonic Pack 2 where four letter sounding words, words with blends** (eg. tr, bl), and some digraphs (eg. ch,sh) are covered.

* three letter sounding words are what I refer to as three letter words that can be sounded out and then the sounds blended into a word eg c-a-t blends into cat, j-e-t blends into jet.
When a child is confident at reading three letter sounding words she/he will be able to read the word without sounding it out.

** four letter sounding words are what I refer to as four letter words that can be sounded out and then the sounds blended into a word eg pr-a-m blends into pram, sl-i-p blends into slip.
When a child is confident at reading four letter sounding words she/he will be able to read the word without sounding it out. This skill is covered in Phonic Pack 2.

Note: some commonly used three letter words (and four letter words) cannot be sounded out. (eg
the, here, said). These are called look-say words and the child has to be able to recognise
them, reading them without trying to sound them out. When the child is learning how to write
(spell) look-say words use the letter NAME not the letter SOUND.
(eg the – ‘tee aitch ee’ spells the)

Explain to the child the difference between a look-say word and a word that he/she can
sound out.

Consistently use the above vocabulary with the child and he/she will soon understand what
you mean and communication (and the child’s confidence) will be enhanced for both reading
and writing.

For instance: If a child needs help to read the word ‘the’, you would say, “It’s a look-say
word, ‘tee-aitch-ee, says ‘the’. If it is a look-say word you will need to tell
the child what the word says.

If a child needs help to read the word ‘mop’, you would say, “It’s a three letter
sounding word.” Encourage the child to sound the word out and blend the
sounds together until he/she can read the word ‘mop’.

If a child asks you, “How do I write (spell) the?”
Your answer would be, “It’s a look-say word, tee-aitch-ee.”

If a child asks you, “How do I write (spell) rag?”
Your answer would be, “It’s a three letter sounding word, r-a-g.”

The first five worksheets in the following lessons follow the same pattern:

Section One:
Ask the child to point to and sound out each word.
If the child can read the word without sounding it out this is good.

Section Two:
1. Read the instructions with the child. Ask the child to point to each word as you read. It is
surprising how many words a child will learn to recognise by reading the instructions with you. It
is also teaching the child it is important to read instructions to find out what she/ he is being
asked to do.

2. Let the child complete the task.
Offer help only when needed.
Encourage the child to sound out any words he/she does not recognise.
Observing how the child works this sheet will enable you to record his/her progress.

Hint:
I ask each child to use a different colour for each match, and I insist the line drawn from the word to the picture is as straight as possible. This makes for neater work and easier marking.

Section Three:
Section Three is included to give the child practise at writing the words.
This is the beginning of becoming aware of spelling words correctly.

It is important the child is confident at writing as well as reading these words.

1. Ask the child to point to the picture of the man and say,
“This is a picture of a (child says ‘man’)”
“How do we write ‘man’?”
Child answers, “m-a-n.”
“Write the word ‘man’ on the line under the picture of the man.”
Ask the child to ‘sound the word onto the paper’ – that is say each letter aloud m-a-n as he/she
writes it onto the paper.

Note: This may seem a simple exercise and you may be tempted to let the child write the word without working through these steps. Even if the child finds it easy, insist it is done this way for these worksheets – it will reap rewards when the writing (spelling) becomes more difficult.

2. Cover the pictures in an unpredictable order. This ensures the child has to keep
listening to and following directions given by you (another skill that improves with practise!)

yes, no or maybe:
1. Read the instructions with the child. Ask the child to point to each word as you read. It is
surprising how many words a child will learn to recognise by reading the instructions with you. It
is also teaching the child it is important to read and follow instructions.

2. Let the child complete the task.
Offer help only when needed.
Encourage the child to sound out any words he/she does not recognise.
Observing how the child works this sheet will enable you to record his/her progress.

Note: No 2 page 6: Some children will be able to read the word ‘tail’ by using the sense of the
sentence as a clue.

3. After marking go back to the sentences and ask the children to observe how a sentence begins
with a capital letter and ends with a full stop or a question mark (and why the difference?)
Ask each child to pick up a coloured pencil and trace over the capital letter at the beginning of
each sentence and the full stop or question mark at the end.

Model simple sentences on the black/white board.

(Sheet 10 offers practise at writing a sentence with a capital letter and ending it with a full stop.)

Read and Draw:
‘Read and Draw’ is a simple comprehension exercise.

Give minimal help. This will let you know how well the child understands what he/she is reading.

1. Read the instructions with the child. Ask the child to point to each word as you read.

2. There are two ways to cover this sheet, depending on the development of the child:

a) If the child can confidently write three letter sounding words with minimal help –
Ask the child to point to the picture of the zip.
Instruct the child to write the word ‘zip’ on the line under the picture of the zip.

Move on to the next picture.
Cover the pictures in an unpredictable order. This ensures the child has to stay on task,
listening to your instructions, to successfully complete the worksheet.

b) If the child is still not confident at writing three letter sounding words follow the instructions as
for worksheets 1-5.

ie. Ask the child to point to the picture of the zip and say,
“This is a picture of a (child says ‘zip’)”
“How do we write ‘zip’?”
Child answers, “z-i-p.”
“Write the word ‘zip’ on the line under the picture of the zip.”
Ask the child to ‘sound the word onto the paper’ – that is say each letter aloud z-i-p as he/she
writes it onto the paper.

Move on to the next picture.
Cover the pictures in an unpredictable order. This ensures the child has to stay on task to
complete the worksheet.

Note: as soon as the child is confident enough to write the word with minimal help encourage her/him to do so.
It would be expected the child would be able to work the sheets as per a) above.

Tutor Notes for Three Letter Sounding Words - page 5of 7

Print above image and use with Tutor Notes Pages 1,2,3,4,6 and 7 and Lessons Pages 1-10.

Worksheet 10 offers practise at writing in sentences using two and three letter sounding words and the look-say word ‘the’.

Children learn how to spell words so they can write them correctly when writing.
Some children easily transfer the skill of being able to spell a single word correctly to spelling it correctly in their writing. Other children need lots of practise, guidance and encouragement.
Good habits formed now will pay dividends as the child progresses to more challenging tasks.

Sheet 10 offers the child practise at this skill (in times past it was called dictation).

1. Read the instructions with the child. Ask the child to point to each word as you read.

2 Explain to the child that you are going to dictate a sentence to him/her about each picture and you
want him/her to write the sentence on the lines next to the picture.

Remind the child that a sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop or question
mark.
If the child does not know how to spell (write) the word ‘the’, write it on the black/white board
for her/him to copy. Explain it will have a capital letter if written at the beginning of a sentence but
will not have a capital if written in the middle of a sentence.
Model a sentence using the word ‘The’ and ‘the’ eg The cat sat on the mat.

3. Look at and discuss the first picture with the child.
This is the sentence to dictate to the child to write next to the first picture.

The pig is in the mud.

4. Check what the child has written. (If you are working the lesson with a class of children whizz
around quickly, checking each child.)
If the child has written the sentence correctly, with all words spelt correctly and with a capital
letter and a full stop, let her/him give it a tick.
If there is a mistake ask the child to correct it before moving on to the next sentence.
(I always let the children work in lead pencil and let them erase and correct mistakes.)

Note: As each child finishes correcting his/her work he/she may like to draw a fancy border around the page, or each child may have a library book on her/his desk to read until it is time to move on to the next sentence. (Have this or another suitable activity organised before the lesson begins so each child knows what to do when she/he has finished).

5. When every child has a correct sentence for first picture move on to the second picture.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 above.

6. Follow this pattern with each picture. There should be less and less mistakes with each sentence
as the children learn how to write a sentence with correct spelling and punctuation.

Be cheerful, positive and give plenty of praise as progress is made.

The sentences to dictate for the pictures are:

The jet is up.

The pot is hot.

The mop is wet.

The rat is in the rug.

The log is big.

Tutor Notes for Three Letter Sounding Words - page 6of 7

Print above image and use with Tutor Notes Pages 1,2,3,4,5 and 7 and Lessons Pages 1-10.

The following lists of words can be used to provide children with practise at sounding out/reading three letter sounding words: (this list is not exhaustive, you may like to add to it)
Ask the child to point to the word, sound it out, and then blend the sounds into a word.
If the child can read the word without sounding it out first, this is real progress.
(Play games: ‘Up and Down the Ladder’ , ‘Jump Around the Page’)

Beneficial practise at writing (spelling) three letter sounding words can be given without picture clues.
The tutor says a word – the child prints it on to paper (you can use words from previous pages)
Some children will be happy to write many words in one sitting.
Other children may need to be encouraged to write five in one sitting.

As soon as a child can read and write three letter sounding words without picture clues, and without having to laboriously sound them out, she/he is ready to move on to Phonic Pack Two.

To Parents and Carers:
Congratulate yourself – because of your care and patience your child can now read, and spell and write sentences! How good is that!
You have laid firm foundations for your child’s future learning.

To Teachers:
Congratulate yourself – because of your care and patience the children in your class can now read, and spell and write sentences! How good is that!
You have laid firm foundations for their future learning.